AfterDawn: News

New Toshiba HD DVD player records to DVD+/R

Next month Toshiba will be releasing a DVR that can put up to two hours of hi-def content on standard DVD+/-R discs using a recently finalized HD DVD format called HD Rec in addition to recording HD DVD-R blanks. It also features a 300GB hard drive.

Since most HDTV is encoded in MPEG-2 the RD-A301 also has a built in transcoder, allowing it to Encode MPEG-2 to AVC. Besides fitting up to 2 hours of hi-def content on regular DVDs, according to Toshiba this also allows up to 159 hours of HD video to be stored on the hard drive. It also includes dual tuners.



The only down side at this time is a lack of compatible hardware. While HD Rec discs can be played on the RD-A301, no other player supports it at this time.

Toshiba has said they expect the unit to go on sale for ¥100,000 (US$875) in Japan. Currently there are no plans to sell it in other countries.

Source: PCWorld

Written by: Rich Fiscus @ 3 Nov 2007 17:26

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• 3 comments

• Pop_Smith

  Here is Verbatim's list of sellers for the HD DVD-R. Cheapest price: $11.99 @ eCost.com.
  
  Looks like HD DVD-R DLs run at $19.95 at B&H and $20.99 @ Buy.com.
  
  Peace

  3.11.2007 19:10 #1

• b18bek9

  HD is the cheaper ofthe 2 formats yet there are no hd burners on the market for pc....non that i've seen...still waiting for hd burners to hit the market once they do then we'll really see who's gonna win the format war...

  3.11.2007 22:21 #2

• borhan9

  The 300gig hard drive is what is atracting me to this atm. I would like to see how it goes in the selected countries and i hope it does well soo other countries like OZ can get to play with these new devices as well.

  17.11.2007 17:14 #3